Ohio hospitals see patients in waiting rooms surge

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio hospitals are so overwhelmed by COVID-19 that some patients are being seen in waiting rooms, health officials said on Friday.

What would you like to know

• Ohio Reports Record COVID-19 Hospitalizations, Incredibly High Positivity Rates
• The surge peaks in the Cleveland area, while other areas may be a few weeks late
• Hospitals delay more elective surgeries to deal with record wave of virus

Cleveland, Akron and Canton areas report the highest patient volumes in the state, but hospitalizations in central Ohio have also reached record levels, and authorities expect the surge to continue to move south over the next two weeks.

The Cleveland Clinic sends healthcare workers to waiting rooms in some of its hospitals to see patients while they wait for beds in emergency rooms, confirmed Dr Robert Wyllie, director of medical operations for the system. health, in an update from the Ohio Department of Health. conference.

“The reason some people are seen in the waiting room is because there are no additional rooms in the emergency department,” Wylie said. “We put our staff in waiting areas to sort them out to make sure we don’t miss anyone who is having a heart attack and needs immediate intervention, or has symptoms of a stroke, or who needs oxygen therapy because they have COVID. “

Northern Ohio Hospitals, which receive support from the Ohio National Guard, make decision to cancel elective outpatient surgeries that do not require hospitalization in order to relocate staff to care for inpatients, Wylie said. Previously, hospitals in Ohio had only interrupted elective surgeries that could require an overnight stay in a hospital bed.

In central Ohio, all hospitals jointly halted elective inpatient bed surgeries on Thursday, a measure that will remain in effect for at least two weeks, said Dr. Andrew Thomas, Ohio clinical director. State Wexner.

Ohio Department of Health director Dr Bruce Vanderhoff said the state was in the midst of an “omicron tsunami” that is crushing hospitals.

“The reality is that on the ground right now, Ohio is facing a historic challenge in terms of the incredible demands and pressure on our hospitals,” said Vanderhoff. “It is as serious as we have seen it, and our hospitals must go to extraordinary lengths to be able to provide beds and necessary care for the sickest patients in our state.”

According to the latest update Thursday, a record 6,540 patients have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ohio, while 1,314 patients received care in intensive care units.

The omicron variant causes less severe disease than previous strains of the virus, but Vanderhoff said the raw volume of infections was stressing the state’s healthcare system, with around 20,000 people testing positive every day, nearly twice more than the previous record last winter. .

“With so many people infected and still about a third of our population without vaccine protection, it’s no surprise that we are seeing an unprecedented number of hospitalizations,” Vanderhoff said.

In Ohio state and at the Cleveland Clinic, medical staff applauded the announcement of the Ohio National Guard’s arrival to assist state hospitals, Thomas and Wylie said.

Working in teams of 10, more than 1,200 members of the Ohio National Guard have been deployed to support hospitals, and more than 1,000 other members of the Guard will be deployed by early next week, a said Ohio Adjutant General Major General John Harris, Jr.

About 140 military personnel are on bedside medical teams, while the majority perform non-clinical tasks for hospitals – preparing and operating trays, cleaning surfaces, turning beds and running tests, said Harris.

The Cleveland Clinic has said that almost all of the COVID-19 cases it currently detects are the omicron variant.

“It’s starting to erase delta,” Wylie said. “We are seeing very few delta cases at this time.”

The hospital’s latest analysis showed that 75% of its patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, while an even higher percentage of patients in intensive care units and on ventilators have not been vaccinated .

At the new mass testing sites backed by the Ohio National Guard, officials are reporting staggering positivity rates. At the Walker Building test site in Cleveland, more than 38% of the tests come back positive, and the new test site in Columbus reports a positivity rate of over 40%, officials said.

In Cuyahoga County, authorities believe cases have peaked, giving them some hope that hospitalizations will soon decline. The healthcare system has lost around 3,000 non-clinical staff each day to COVID-19 quarantines, but the workforce is starting to improve, especially with the isolation period shortened to five days, Wylie said.

Thomas said the worst is yet to come in central Ohio, which he says is 10 to 14 days behind in northern Ohio in terms of peaking COVID-19 numbers. The southwestern Ohio region appears to be around 10 to 14 days behind in central Ohio, he said. Modeling shows the Ohio omicron push is expected to peak towards the end of the month, Thomas said.

Officials said the situation with the virus is very grim, but they hope the rapid spread of the omicron variant will be followed by a significant drop in the number of viruses as the population gains more immunity.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed that the same decline they saw in South Africa, that we will see a decline, maybe not as marked, but we hope to see a steady decline, and I think we have the first idea of ​​that in northern Ohio right now, ”Wylie said.